Palace confident inflation will ease further

(Eagle News) — The Palace on Tuesday, March 5, said it expects “further improvement and disinflation” following the deceleration of inflation in February.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo issued the statement after the Philippine Statistics Authority made the announcement the country’s inflation rate last month fell within the 3.7 percent to 4.5 percent projection set by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Panelo attributed the “positive development” to the “macroeconomic policies of the Duterte administration.”

“We expect further improvement and disinflation as we continue to remain vigilant in monitoring the prices of basic goods used by ordinary Filipino consumers,” he said.

The PSA said the 3.8 percent inflation in February was the “lowest inflation rate” since March 2018.

It was much lower than the the 4.4 percent inflation rate posted the previous month.

“The main drivers in the downtrend of inflation in February 2019 were food and non-alcoholic beverages, alcoholic beverages and tobacco and transport,” the PSA said.